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Meat Is Out at Fielder’s Plate

As Sara Bassindale brings another concoction, the Brewers Prince Fielder tucks into another of a Milwaukee restaurants eclectic dishes.Credit
Darren Hauck for The New York Times

MILWAUKEE — Prince Fielder surveyed the landscape of beet pasta, mung bean pancake and smoked-tomato popcorn stretched out before him, and uttered a phrase never before heard in baseball history.

“Where’s the hominy?”

This was not an eager request for some of the hummus-like corn goo. Nor was it a gag on “Where’s the beef?” a question actually heard quite often around Fielder these days. It was a plea for some sort of map through the table’s dizzying array of choices that stupefied, flummoxed and otherwise befuddled baseball’s only 265-pound slugging vegetarian.

Fielder, a first baseman who walloped 50 home runs last season, has become more than the face of the young and improving Milwaukee Brewers — he has become a lightning rod for his off-season decision to spurn meat and fish, including the bratwurst that tailgating Milwaukee fans hold so dear. Him hitting only one home run through 20 games only accentuated the intrigue. As the last player most would have expected to go granola, Fielder and his diet have become as delicious for critics as the rib eyes he used to love.

“Fans last year were yelling at me, ‘Hey Prince, eat a salad!’ ” Fielder said during dinner at a Milwaukee restaurant last Tuesday. “This year they’re saying, ‘Eat a steak!’ I feel like going: ‘Keep yelling, buddy. You’re still in the stands.’ ”

One of the most gregarious young stars in the sport, Fielder has begun to feel a bit like a circus seal, balancing the ball of vegetarianism on his nose while, all things being equal, still appreciating a good rack of ribs. Fielder, 23, decided to make the switch over the winter after reading how cattle and chickens were treated and “was totally grossed out,” he said. His wife, Chanel, preferred a no-meat diet as it was, so he embraced a new approach.

Fielder had been as carnivorous as your average puma — pushing 200 pounds since he was 12, he scarfed down a 48-ounce porterhouse as a teenager and had barely slowed down since. (He played last year with 270 pounds on his 5-foot-11 frame, not all of it muscle.) But he figured he could get his protein from beans and shakes instead of meat and fish, leading to conversations since the beginning of spring training that have grown quite tiresome.

Yes, he eats a lot of black bean burgers. No, he does not sneak chicken fingers behind Chanel’s back. Yes, he has all the energy he always did, maybe more. No, his slow start (he entered Saturday batting .241 with just three home runs, but hit a go-ahead solo homer in a 4-3 victory over Florida on Saturday night) has had nothing to do with his diet. Yes, he has lost about five pounds, but is not hungry all the time. No, he does not munch on plain tofu, which still tastes like a wet eraser to him.

“Yeah, I’m a vegetarian — but still, some things are just nasty,” Fielder said. “I like salads. But sometimes, they get too creative. I like regular food, just no meat in it.”

This was evidenced by Tuesday night’s dinner at Roots, a Milwaukee hot spot known for its eclectic, healthful concoctions that can include meat but often do not. It is the kind of place that, quite literally, puts a little pickled eggplant in your Bloody Mary. Fielder approached the menu cautiously, even skeptically, as if facing a knuckleballer.

“This avocado thing — good stuff?” he said to the waitress.

“You’ll get about two to three dumplings about this size, with grits inside the dumpling, stewed tomatoes on side,” she explained. “Are you familiar with chayote?”

“No, what is that?”

“It is kind of like a parsnip as far as flavor goes. So really crunchy, kind of like a slaw on top.”

“I’m going to get that,” Fielder decided. “And a Caesar salad.”

The server heartily recommended the beet pasta salad, as in pasta fashioned from beets. “Ew — I’m not good on beets,” Fielder said. She kept raving about the dish, so not wanting to hurt her feelings, Fielder conceded, “All right, I’ll try it.”

Fielder’s becoming a vegetarian came as a surprise to the Brewers, who learned of it when the news media found out when spring training began. General Manager Doug Melvin said he had no concerns, then or now, about perhaps his team’s strongest player drastically changing the fuel he put in his tank. Melvin is so unmoved by the situation that he said: “Is he still a vegetarian? I don’t even know.”

Fielder started last season similarly, with just two home runs in 18 games, prompting questions about his weight that he answered with another 48 homers, breaking the team record. But this year’s slump was longer — he hit only one home run in 65 at-bats in spring training, too — and preceded by a lifestyle change attempted by few major-sport athletes. Names of any other baseball-playing vegetarians remain a mystery; the tight end Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs last year became a vegan, meaning he also eschews eggs and dairy.

Not quite so draconian, Fielder still has received advice on his new diet from Leslie Bonci of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She is a nutritional consultant for the Brewers and several other major league teams. She said that the main issue with vegetarians — particularly those in sports — was getting enough protein to maintain power and endurance. Muscles cannot tell the difference between the protein found in soy burgers and poultry, she said, so eating one or the other should not affect something even as timing-sensitive as hitting a baseball.

“We’ll communicate with the visiting clubhouse when we go on the road and ask them to consider purchasing veggie burgers,” said Chris Joyner, the Brewers’ strength and conditioning specialist. “A lot of the caterers clubs use have that option available, but you’d never ask because they’ve never had a vegetarian.”

Photo

Tailgating at Miller Park is about bratwurst. Theyre the breakfast of champions, a fan said. Im not sure which sport.Credit
Darren Hauck for The New York Times

Options were no issue Tuesday night, when within minutes the Roots kitchen had whipped up all sorts of dishes for Fielder to sample. First came the smoked-tomato popcorn and roasted nuts with paprika, which Fielder attacked enthusiastically. (He had finished a 13-inning game only hours before.) The mung bean pancake was “like an egg roll potato — it could use some salt,” he said. His lips had barely hit the hominy when the waitress came back and apprehensively informed Fielder that his Caesar salad’s dressing had anchovies in it.

“That’s fine,” he said. “I’ll try the cucumber aioli.”

Brewers fans do not seem quite so comfortable with their brawny slugger becoming so refined. Earlier that day, the parking lots at Miller Park were characteristically sizzling with tailgate barbecues — most of them featuring the fatty bratwurst that are all but Wisconsin’s state vegetable. This is the stadium, after all, that during every sixth inning stages a spirited race among five humans dressed as different varieties of weiner product, from Italian sausages to chorizo; a tofu dog has yet to be invited.

“C’mon, Prince, eat some brats — sauté them in a little Miller Lite!” said Sandi Liegel, who had driven in from nearby Madison.

Several spaces down, Dan Ricksetter of Milwaukee added: “It was a bit disheartening when he decided to become a vegetarian. Brats are intrinsic to our culture. They’re the breakfast of champions. I’m not sure which sport.”

More supportive fans have sent Fielder vegetarian cookbooks and recipes for Aunt Esther’s veggie curd stew, but he has so far resisted. (“It’s not like I have a five-star kitchen in my condo,” he said.) Chanel makes a great cheese lasagna, edamame beans are a new favorite, but do not even suggest zucchini or eggplant.

Fielder did not leave hungry, though. He devoured his avocado-pinto grit dumplings, particularly when he mushed in the stewed tomatoes and chayote slaw into one goop. He crushed some cashew sticky rice, and the cucumber aioli did not kill the Caesar.

“This is really good once you get it all mixed in,” he said. “Do it one at a time, and it’s weird.”

Less than 24 hours later, Fielder stood in the batter’s box against one of baseball’s best young left-handers, Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies. Fielder smoked two home runs in the Brewers’ 5-4 win. Less filling, tasted great.

A version of this article appears in print on , on page SP1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Vegetarian Slugger in the Land of Brats. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe